A public forum for nurses and nurse practitioners to raise health-care concerns they think should be addressed in the upcoming provincial election is coming to Owen Sound Tuesday.
RNAO chief executive officer Doris Grinspun will be visiting local registered nurses, nurse practitioners and nursing students next week "to learn how health policy is affecting their everyday practice and the well-being of the populations they serve," an RNAO news release which announced the forum said.
RNAO is holding a forum at the Grey Bruce Heath Unit, 101 17th St. E., from noon to 1:30 p.m.
Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario officials are traveling around Ontario to gather stories and will be raising RNAO's own concerns in the campaign. Its issues include the need for affordable housing and a $15 minimum wage to combat the health effects of poverty, it said.
RNAO will also be raising its concerns about the "dangerous trend" toward low staffing of RNs and nurse practitioners, it said in a news release. The association says Ontario has the lowest RN-to-population ratio in Canada. In 2016 Ontario had 703 RNs per 100,000 population, down from 711 in 2015, it said in a June 1 analysis. The average in the rest of Canada in 2016 was 839 RNs per 100,000 people -- 19.5 per cent higher than in Ontario, it said.
RNAO says there's been a 10-year-shift away from RNs in healthcare organizations toward use of more registered practical nurses, which is contributing to the declining ratio of nurses to population -- from 77.7 per cent in 2007 to 70.3 per cent in 2016, while the use of less educated RPNs rose from 2.3 to 29.7 per cent in the same period.
The registered nurses association says research shows RNs reduce mortality, increase quality of care, patient satisfaction and cost savings.